Cubby Broccoli

d. June 27, 1996

Albert Romolo Broccoli, or Cubby as he was known to friends, family and millions of James Bond fans, died on June 27, 1996, following a long battle with heart disease. He was 87. And he was, as anyone reading this publication surely knows, the father of the cinematic James Bond. After Ian Fleming’s early death, the movie Bond became the only Bond. And when his producing partner, Harry Saltzman, sold his Bond interests, Cubby became the sole keeper of the flame — for better or worse. Those of us who cared about the Bond films certainly didn’t agree with every move he made. But Cubby surprised us. He made the Bond films his life’s work, and he genuinely cared about them and their fans — enough to listen and change things, killing that clownish ’70s pretender and giving us back the world’s most improbably successful secret agent. In many ways, he was the last of the producer moguls, an innate showman who knew what he wanted and got it. His kind of producer has been sadly absent in recent years and likely is gone forever now. But for 35 years of the greatest movie adventure series ever made, and the legacy to continue it for many years to come, we can only say: Thank you, Cubby.

Originally published in For Your Eyes Only #37.